“A lot of the outcry from indie devs was kind of misplaced really. None of them are going to get anywhere near the $1m anyway.”
Then they still don’t understand why people were mad.
The problem was that it was retroactive, and while this specific change may not impact many of the indie devs (I think it does, but that’s irrelevant), the precedent of changing the terms after the fact is unacceptable. That is why people were mad.
But honestly, they shouldn’t have gone this route at all. Their main distinguishing feature that separates them from Unreal Engine (at least in terms of licensing costs) is that they charge per seat instead of royalties per sale. If they’re struggling to fund development, they should increase the cost per seat, and encourage people to update with nifty new features. Throwing in a retroactive royalty-esque charge is a really effective way to piss off your customers.
Then they still don’t understand why people were mad.
The problem was that it was retroactive, and while this specific change may not impact many of the indie devs (I think it does, but that’s irrelevant), the precedent of changing the terms after the fact is unacceptable. That is why people were mad.
But honestly, they shouldn’t have gone this route at all. Their main distinguishing feature that separates them from Unreal Engine (at least in terms of licensing costs) is that they charge per seat instead of royalties per sale. If they’re struggling to fund development, they should increase the cost per seat, and encourage people to update with nifty new features. Throwing in a retroactive royalty-esque charge is a really effective way to piss off your customers.